Shrubs to 3 m tall. Branchlets purplish brown, stout, ca. 5 mm in diam., glabrous; juvenile branchlets glabrous or slightly pilose, glabrescent. Leaves sessile or subsessile; leaf blade obovate-elliptic, 5-7 × 2.5-3 cm, both surfaces uniformly colored or abaxially greenish, glabrous, adaxially wrinkled, slightly pilose when young, glabrescent except along veins, base cuneate-rounded to rounded, margin entire, apex acute, rounded, or apiculate. Flowering precocious or nearly coetaneous. Male catkin unknown. Female catkin 6-7 × ca. 1.3 cm; peduncle 1-2.5 cm, without leaflets; rachis white villous; bracts obovate-oblong, both surfaces densely long silky, apex subrounded. Female flower: adaxial gland subovate; ovary narrowly ovoid, ca. 3 mm, white downy, shortly stipitate; style long, ca. 1/2 as long as ovary, 2-lobed; stigma 2-cleft. Fl. Jul.

Similar to Salix sikkimensis but leaf blade slightly pilose when young, margin not gland-tipped; peduncle long; bracts not membranous, densely long silky, rounded at apex. Similar also to S. spodiophylla but leaves sessile or subsessile; blade glabrous or slightly pilose along veins abaxially; peduncle without leaflets; bracts long silky.

* Mountain slopes; circa 3900 m. SE Xizang (Mêdog Xian)